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Share this Story: Perseverance and patience; To all the teachers who helped one spec-ed kid on her path to high school, thank you

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OTTAWA — This week, my 14-year-old daughter, Liz, led her school’s procession into a steamy, crowded gym at Featherston Drive Public School for Grade 8 graduation. She wore her older sister’s blue dress and black pumps — the first time anyone at school had seen her in something other than a hockey T-shirt and matching cap.

Liz loves hockey — or at least hockey shirts. Maybe it’s the team logo with the number and player’s name on the back that gives a sense of order in her autistic mind.

Perseverance and patience; To all the teachers who helped one spec-ed kid on her path to high school, thank youBack to video

One of her teaching assistants had rouged her cheeks. Another had painted her nails. Liz led the procession with her peculiar gait, perpetually leaning forward, her arms held still at the side, her elbows bent. She was oblivious to the scores of parents waving smart phone cameras beside her as she plodded forward intent on getting to exactly where she’d set her mind on going — to her front row seat and her walk across the stage.

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It had been a long journey. Diagnosed with autism, intellectual delays, fine and gross motor deficiencies and behavioural problems, Liz bulled her way through four elementary schools and more teachers and support staff than I can remember.

Liz is a “spec-ed” kid, one of the ones who consumes more than their share of the education pie. High transportation costs, low teacher-to-student ratios, one-on-one education assistants, specialized equipment such as iPads and sensory rooms — the types of services that are seemingly never secure at budget time.

Spec-ed kids burn out teachers like they burn out parents. And yet over the past nine years I’ve never seen teachers, classroom assistants, principals and vice-principals, therapists and office staff be so giving and caring. At a time when complaints about school scandals, strikes and controversies make the news, this is a thank you to a legion of teachers who’ve gone above and beyond the call to help one kid, my daughter.

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Slow to smile as a baby, slow to sit up, slow to walk and talk, Liz missed every milestone. When Liz entered McHugh School’s “Steps to Success” program, just sitting at a desk seemed beyond her reach.

Two years later, she was into the chaos of a regular classroom with an overwhelmed teacher trying to cope with an unruly class. Liz was lost and the experiment ended within a month, when she was transferred to a “primary readiness class” at a new school where she would have more time to adjust.

At first Liz would go half days, and we learned to dread the morning call from school that Liz was having a bad day and could we please come and get her. The daily communication logbooks make grim reading now: “A difficult morning, unsettled, unfocused and demanding” … “Liz has to be reminded she cannot hit the teachers” … “Liz was disturbing French class. I took her out and she started to hit (15 times?) and head butt”.

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Once I was met by her principal, bandaged where she’d been cut by a shard from a cup Liz had thrown against the wall in anger. Eventually, Liz was placed in the autism program, although it took hard lobbying to secure one of the very limited spots available.

It was in the autism program at Featherston that Liz blossomed — eventually. From the early communication logs: “aggressed toward staff ” … “behaviour escalated” … “in the hall she screamed and rolled around for an hour at least” … “tried to hit staff and peers” ….

But the staff persevered. Liz learned to help with the recycling. She took attendance reports to the office. She went on shopping trips to the grocery store (a life skills program that has sadly been discontinued). Her desk work improved. She would sit and scrawl out her answers to the simple math questions she was given. The class learned to travel by bus on excursions around the city.

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For all her struggles, Liz can light up a room. To walk beside her down the hallway was like walking beside the mayor: she had a smile and a wave for everyone. Always gregarious, Liz was soon on a first-name basis with every adult in the school. The communication logs began to use words like “worked quietly” …”awesome” … and “great day.” Liz learned to love her school.

Next year, she is bound for high school where I know the teachers and support staff will build on the hard-won gains of the elementary system. I know she will excel. Liz didn’t win any academic medals. She will always struggle to function in a society in which she can’t keep pace. But she’s miles ahead of where she was or where I ever expected she would be.

So thank you Lori and Jennifer, Bonnie and Donna, Christina and Stella, Stephanie and Ali. Thanks to Tanya and Andrew, Anuka and Mari, Pete and Patty and Dan and Divania. Thanks to the many more I’ve forgotten and some I never knew. You’ve all contributed so much.

So here it is. The brightest, reddest apple I could find, buffed to perfection and placed on your desk. Liz couldn’t have done it — we couldn’t have done it — without you.

Share this Story: Perseverance and patience; To all the teachers who helped one spec-ed kid on her path to high school, thank you

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